Black BC: A History of the Black Experience at Boston College

Black BC Walking Tour is an interactive tour that allows online and mobile users to discover and explore black BC’s complex history on campus, in Boston, and in the nation. It mines anecdotal and informal resources as well as BC archives to commemorate the presence and contributions of black BC, and to document how this community participates in Boston’s black communities. The site is also a resource for BC students, faculty, staff, alums, and scholars who conduct research on race.

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Random Stories

19 March 1965 - James Farmer, National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), spoke at BC’s Law School Forum about the struggle for equality. He stated that it could be achieved through two goals: to “tear down the walls of racism”…

October 1970 - Black students of Fenwick Hall say that a dorm solely for black students is necessary “to help make this adaption to white society easier,” to have "a haven from ignorant stares and rude behavior,” according to the article. Frank…

12 April 2012 – For all of the participants in last Tuesday’s rally to raise awareness for Martin’s case, justice was the end goal. United Front, a coalition of various Boston College clubs and organizations that represent the African American…

September 1933– Casper Augustus Ferguson, BC ’37, becomes the University’s first black student. “The 1937Sub Turriyearbook suggests Ferguson had at least one friend among the 281 graduates. In a three-sentence biography beneath his portrait, David…

September 1933 – Casper Augustus Ferguson became Boston College’s first African-American graduate on a hot, overcast afternoon on Alumni Field in June 1937. […] Ferguson commuted to Chestnut Hill by streetcar in the morning, and after the…

23 October 1989 - AHANA House is renamed to Thea Bowman Center. During the dedication ceremony, Bowman calls on AHANA students to teach the BC community to include AHANA in the first stage of plans, not just the final stage, and challenges the white…